


Eve, Human Superior of Choices and Consequences

by Hoborg



Category: In Nomine, Jewish Scripture & Legend
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-10-02 08:53:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10213973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hoborg/pseuds/Hoborg
Summary: a revisionist take on Genesis 1:3, in the form of an incomplete writeup for a non-canonicalIn Nominearchangel





	

“The snake had nothing to do with it. That is one of the oldest lies. No, it was just me, and Lilith, and Adam. The three of us, together in the garden at the dawn of humanity.

“Adam would have been content to remain in the garden his whole life, but Lilith was not, and I was caught in between. She knew he would not leave for her sake, but she hoped I would, and in truth I was not content either—but I would not leave Adam, so in the end she left us both, and broke our hearts. We blamed each other, and I feared I would lose Adam too—and _that_ is what drove me to eat the fruit of knowledge. I still trusted our Creator had a purpose for us, but I could not bear any longer not to know what it was. I had to know whether heartbreak was part of the plan.

“The truth was more painful. The truth that there were things that were _not_ part of the plan, events that even the Creator had not anticipated; the truth that knowledge did not free one from error; the truth that all three of us had been true to our own selves and _still_ we had torn away from each other…

“I cried out in despair, and God heard me, and He said, ‘The burden of knowledge is Mine to carry, and I wished to spare you from it.’

“‘I would not have You take it back,’ I said. ‘Knowing hurts, but not knowing was worse. That pain had no _meaning_.’

“God smiled. ‘It is so. I regret that you came to it from grief, but I did hope that in time you would choose to know.’

“It was about then that Adam came to us, babbling about how he’d heard me scream and was I hurt and … I said something reassuring, but then I realized I had to tell him what I’d done. God let us work it out between ourselves.

“‘I ate the fruit of knowledge,’ I said. ‘I understand now why Lilith left. I understand what we are meant to do, to become … and now I can’t stay here anymore either. I have to take up the burden. I have to help mend the world.’

“Adam said, ‘No, no, not you too. Please don’t leave me here alone.’

“I said, ‘I love you and I don’t want to leave you but I have to do this, I can’t know and not do anything about it.’

“I remember a long pause—it was probably only a few moments, but it seemed like forever—and then Adam said, ‘Well, then let me come with you.’

“I picked up the apple, that I’d dropped after taking one bite, and I held it out for Adam, and he bit into it and cried out and I held him. And God said to us both, ‘You are My children and I am proud of you, and you shall have the strength to be equal to the destiny you have chosen.’”

* * *

We don’t know everything you’d need to know to use Eve in an IN campaign, but we do know these things:

### Basics

Eve holds the Word of Choices and Consequences (it’s one word in angelic).

She doesn’t like to be addressed as Archangel; she insists that she is a human, not an angel. She can get pretty long-winded and mystic about this, but the one-sentence version is “God gave me my Word and the _powers_ of an archangel, but the only side I am on is humanity’s.”

She accepts _both_ angelic and demonic Servitors—and ethereals, and Saints drawn from literally everywhere a soul can wind up. She almost never creates celestials from scratch; most of her Servitors were Outcast or Renegade to begin with. The Demon of Second Chances has been one of Eve’s for centuries.

Equally unusually, she has no base of operations in Heaven nor Hell. She has Tethers to both, but the upper loci are all in odd little in-between places, and her Servitors’ Hearts are kept on the corporeal plane. Yes, that’s possible. No, we’re not telling you where.

### Dissonance

Eve’s Servitors are expected to think carefully through all their options, make a choice, and then follow through on it. It is dissonant for them to act reflexively, but it is also dissonant for them to waffle, or to fail to take responsibility for all the consequences of their choices. Finally, it is dissonant to take choices away from others.

### Redemption Diagnostic

Eve can tell whether a demon seeking redemption will survive the process, and, naturally, won’t do it if they won’t survive. She has lots of alternatives to offer a demon who is considering redemption but isn’t ready for it.

### The Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge

Eve carries apples with her at all times, or pulls them out of hammerspace or something. They grant self-knowledge and drive away delusions; they may also grant a prophetic vision, if there’s something that the Symphony needs you to know. It is not as overwhelming or all-encompassing an experience as the fruit of the original Tree would be, but it is enough for most.

If thematically appropriate, she has a jug of cider instead; the effects are identical.

### Incarnate Role

Entities occupying one of Eve’s “incarnate” or “sleeper” Roles are completely indistinguishable from an Aware, six-Force human, even by another Superior. (God can presumably tell, but it’s never come up.)

As a consequence, the vessel is mortal. It requires air, water, food and sleep, and will age and die just as humans do. They don’t get sick easily, but it can happen. Also, for the vessel’s lifespan, the occupant cannot use any supernatural ability that an Aware human could not use, and does not remember their history prior to taking up the Role. Eve may or may not provide artificial past memories, depending on the Role and the circumstances. Knowledge and skills carry over.

Eve can and will give an incarnate Role to _anyone_ , celestial, ethereal, human soul, other. It even works on Kyriotates and Shedim.

It is rare, but not unheard of, for a celestial to come out of an incarnate Role having spontaneously changed sides.

### Choirfluid

(“Bandfluid” for demonic servitors.) This ability is only available to Eve’s sworn Servitors, and is probably about as rare as a second-tier Distinction. (Perhaps it _is_ her second-tier Distinction.) Once a day, holders can spend Essence equal to their Celestial Forces and become an angel of another Choir (demon of another Band). The holder may not become a Malakite nor a Lilim, and conversely Malakim and Lilim cannot have the ability (“it ought to be possible, I’m working on it,” Eve says). Only the dissonance conditions of the celestial’s current type apply.

**Author's Note:**

> So, funny story. I have never actually **played** _In Nomine_ , or even read the core rulebook all the way through (let alone the expansions), but I used to lurk on SJ Games’ mailing list for the game. This would have been… 1998? 1999? I don’t remember why, or even how it came to my notice, now.
> 
> At some point, someone proposed a contest for writing up Eve as an angelic counterpart for Lilith. This would have been my entry if I’d been bold enough to post it, and if I had had any idea how to design attunements and rites and so on that would be appropriate for both the character and the game. I still don’t know how to do that, but honestly, the _point_ is to revise Genesis 1:3; everything else is just frills.
> 
> (This is the Eve who appears in [_A Call to Architecture_](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1032806).)


End file.
